


Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

by mage_989



Category: Almost Human
Genre: Advent Calendar, Christmas Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-14
Updated: 2014-12-14
Packaged: 2018-03-01 12:17:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2772710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mage_989/pseuds/mage_989
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dorian’s first Christmas with Delta Division is a bit overwhelming.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> A piece written for the MXmas advent calender.

“Hey, Dorian, up and at ’em.”

Dorian blinked as his charging cycle abruptly ended. He looked over to see John standing by his station. 

“John, what are you doing here?”

“I’m here to pick up my partner for shift. Now let’s go!”

Dorian stared. Quickly he checked his systems. It was December 1st, 2048 8AM. He had no damage to his internal systems and, his charge level was at 99%, but the sight before him still didn’t make any sense. John was early and…happy.

Gaping at his partner Dorian left Rudy’s and got into the cruiser. It smelled like eggnog. He glanced down to the cup holder to see that instead of John’s usual mug of coffee there was a travel mug decorated with blue shimmering snowflakes. Inside, instead of the usual black coffee, there was a foamy drink that was pale yellow.

“John, what is that?” 

“It’s an eggnog latte I am going to beat Sandra this year for sure.”

On the drive over John explained that they had a completion called holiday drink bingo. They would each buy one drink a day and whoever found the most holiday themed flavours by the end of the month, bonus points for more exotic flavours, won.

So that was why John walked into the precinct looking smug.

“Morning,” Sandra said.

“Morning.”

She held up a mug decorated in Christmas wreaths that had blinking lights in them, and Dorian saw that her nails were painted sparkling red and green.

“What did you get?” she asked.

“Eggnog with rum flavouring, you?”

“Shortbread.”

John’s jaw dropped.

“No way, how do you find shortbread already?”

“That’s for me to know and you to never find out.”

She smiled and went to her office.

Dorian looked around the floor, puzzled at the change that had seemed to have come over everyone. Many people had decorations sitting on top of their computers, and was that mistletoe hanging over Maldonado’s office door?

“John, what is going on?”

“What do you mean?”

Dorian just nodded as Richard went by in a bright red and white striped sweater, and his MX was wearing plastic reindeer antlers.

“Oh that yeah…well the department goes a bit nuts around the holidays. Sorry I should have warned you.”

***

As December went by Dorian discovered that John’s description of the precinct during the holidays turned out to be an understatement, his fellow officers were downright obsessed with the festive season.

Richard it seemed had a different sweater for every day of the month. Valerie had turned half of her desk into a gift wrapping station. Officer Loeb had set up a box for food donations to send to the homeless shelters by his desk, and got so many donations had to put up two more boxes. Novelty toys and decorations that sang, danced, and flew around the room joined the ones already on display. Every other day the break room was filled with homemade baked goods and holiday songs were on a constant loop on the radio. 

Every ride to the station in the mornings the cruiser was filled with a new scent thanks to John and Sandra’s ongoing competition to find every holiday flavoured drink in the city. So far the flavours included shortbread, eggnog, gingerbread, candy cane, mincemeat, five different versions of iced hot chocolate, where apparently there were bonus points if you got the barista to give you extra whipped cream free of charge, and fruitcake. 

The joyous atmosphere wasn’t just regulated to the precinct either. Dorian had come home after a long shift one night and found Rudy building a Christmas tree out of spare parts in the lab. He even asked Dorian to help decorate it with robotic butterflies that glittered in red, green, and gold.

Dorian had to admit he rather liked seeing them twinkling brightly as he settled in to charge for the night.

John however declared the tree an abomination to the season and the day after that Dorian found himself riding to work with a miniature pine tree in the back of the car.

John put it up the conifer in the conference room and declared it a proper tree. Numerous people then brought in ornaments and lights to decorate the tree until one could barely see the pine needles through the array of tinsel and coloured balls. Presents then piled up under it for the office Secret Santa. Dorian then discovered that many of his co-workers had gone over the proposed twenty dollar limit in the gifts they had purchased. Though he refused to use his scanners to tell John what he had gotten for Christmas. 

John declared Dorian Scrooge for the rest of the day.

Dorian had to admit that when the actual gift exchanged occurred he did feel a bit like Scrooge, because there was no package for him, but Dorian knew why. He wasn’t like them. You didn’t get a collection of silicone and carbon fibers gifts. It just hurt anyway. 

***

On Christmas Eve Dorian managed to make it home before midnight, after declining John’s offer to watch classic Christmas movies with him.  
The holidays were exhausting Dorian thought and he went to charge and then he spotted something out of place. On the floor of his charging station he found a present wrapped in holographic paper that shimmered and shifted under the lights.

He picked it up and saw that his name was printed on the tag attached to the bright gold bow. He turned around as Rudy came up to him, smiling.

“Rudy, what is this?”

“It’s a present. I know it’s not much…well of course you don’t know that you haven’t opened it yet, but…Merry Christmas, my friend.”

Dorian admired the wrapping paper for a moment before he carefully undid the bow. He gently pulled off the paper to reveal a jacket. He held it up and Rudy eagerly began babbling about it.

“It’s a combination Kevlar and Tyvek blend. Basic black of course looks good on everyone. Water and wind resistant and it offers 20% more protection against bullets and debris than what you currently have; all while being lightweight and quite stylish if I do say so myself.”

Dorian had to admit it did look very nice and unlike the jacket he was wearing the new one had his name stitched into the sleeve instead of his model type and number.

“Thank you, Rudy.”

He held the coat tightly in his fingers, but then frowned.

“But I didn’t get you anything,” he said softly. This was the very first gift anyone had ever given him and he had nothing to offer his friend in return.

Rudy put his arm around Dorian.

“Your company is all need, Dorian, really. You want to help me finish eating the gingerbread house I printed?”

“Rudy, you know I don’t eat.”

“Don’t doesn’t mean you can’t, come on.”

Dorian did and then he and Rudy called John to say they had changed their minds and wanted to spend Christmas Eve with him.

As it turned out John had already invited Sandra over since Dorian had declined, she had brought along Valerie and Valerie in turn had brought along Richard. So while John grumbled about having too many people to entertain all of them gathered together in his living room while an old actor named Jimmy Stewart wished the entire town of Bedford Falls a Merry Christmas on the TV. 

“I like the new jacket, Dorian.”

“Thank you, Detective Stahl.”

As the movie ended it started snowing outside, thick white flakes clung to the ground. Dorian watched it through the windows as simple feeling seemed to settle over everyone. It was quiet, peaceful, as if the for just a moment the whole world was right. Dorian had never felt it before, but he liked it. He believed he now understood why his fellow officers enjoyed the holidays so much and he did too. 

As the clock struck midnight Dorian couldn’t help but think that there was only 365 days to go until next Christmas. 

The End


End file.
